


Master of One

by kawree



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Canon Compliant, Don’t copy to another site, Gen, Wordplay, Zine Submission
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-15
Updated: 2019-09-15
Packaged: 2020-11-02 06:41:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,590
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20656208
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kawree/pseuds/kawree
Summary: My piece for Way to Dawn, the zine dedicated to our favorite white-haired anime boy in a video game.Distracted by the weight of his newfound responsibilities, Riku takes a moment to contemplate where he is, where he's going, and how far they've all come.Set somewhere mid-KH3, before everybody parties up to go off to the final battle; no spoilers.





	Master of One

The sun is hot and the air moves lazily, bowing the palm fronds as Riku brings his Keyblade to bear, drawing in a slow breath through his nose. He closes his eyes a moment, then spins the weapon around one hand and thrusts it forward with a grunt, pausing as his gaze wanders briefly toward the surf, where Kairi squeals in delight as Sora splashes her with both hands. He smiles a little, shaking his head and lowering the Keyblade. He's glad, really, that Sora was able to take a day's time off from his training here and there; he knows his friend has trouble knuckling down for too long at a time, and that a short reprieve often motivates him to work even harder when he gets back to the grindstone. (That had been the _only_ way to get him to do his math homework in the 8th grade, was four or five problems at a time, followed by a handful of chocolate candies.)

Riku has never had this problem. He's always been a quick study and an eager pupil, learning all that he can as quickly as feasible. He had begged Selphie's father to teach him the homesteading skills he knew they used on their many camping trips, so that should a hurricane ever hit the islands, he would have the knowledge to help people survive such a hardship. He had learned to row at a very young age, so that by the time Sora and Kairi were old enough to be allowed to join him on the play island, he could easily get all three of them there. He had taught himself rudimentary first aid from a manual he'd found under the kitchen sink, before he'd had restorative magic at his disposal, and he'd learned basic carpentry all on his own, so that he could keep the boardwalks and huts on the play island in good condition. He had always taken to most practical studies like a fish to water, and by the time he'd turned fifteen, he was probably more self-sufficient than half the adults on the island.

His mother had asked him once, why he worked so hard to learn so many different things. He had replied that he just liked knowing things, that he preferred to have a lot of varied knowledge so he could be ready for anything. She had scolded him with a wag of one finger, saying that 'a man of many talents is a man with no technique', and he hadn't quite understood what she'd meant by that. Wasn't it better to know a lot, rather than only focusing on one or two skills?

He spins the handle of his Keyblade around once, rolls a cramp out of his shoulder, then starts the form over.

Even after the Darkness had taken him, dragged him from his home and deposited him into Maleficent's clutches, his desire to learn all that he possibly could had not faltered. Embracing the shadows within and without, Riku had learned dark forms of magic, had sought to grasp the skill of calling up the Dark Corridors, and had even tackled learning to control the Heartless themselves. Maleficent, too, had asked him what it was that drove him to try to do so much, so young, and he had assured her that youth did not hinder ambition. She had regarded him coolly, with her sharp, chartreuse eyes, and then lifted her eyebrows as she warned him, 'he who seeks to do everything, surely does nothing _well_.' This he hadn't quite understood, either, and certainly not at that time; why _wouldn't_ he seek to truly comprehend all the new capabilities he'd been given?

Riku hefts a sigh and lowers the Keyblade again, frowning down at where the tip rests in the sand. There's a beat of silence, and then he glances up when someone clears their throat from behind him. He gives Axel a mildly indignant look where the older man stands about three yards away, his Keyblade hooked over his shoulder and a puzzled expression on his face.

"You keep starting over and all I'm gonna learn from you today is how to hold the darn thing straight up in the air," he says with a shake of his head, and Riku's indignation shifts to apology as he dismisses his weapon and rakes a hand back through his hair.

"Sorry," he says, flapping his arms somewhat uselessly at his sides. "Guess I'm distracted today."

"That's about the least 'you' thing ever," Axel says, frowning as he dismisses his own weapon. "You're not dying, right?"

"No more than usual," Riku says dryly, and Axel actually laughs a little.

"When you can't focus, it's best to take a break," Axel says then, flopping backward into the sand and threading his hands together behind his head, and Riku snorts.

"I think you'll just take any excuse to slack off," he accuses, though he deigns to sit down beside him.

"I prefer the term, 'recreational relaxation'," Axel says, propping his ankle on his opposite knee and bouncing his foot. 

Riku notices absently that Axel has removed his shoes, and frowns. Maybe he _is_ being a little too rigid about things--he and Sora used to spar barefoot in the surf when they were little, and even now, Sora and Kairi have kicked off their shoes and Sora has rolled up his pants to the knees and doesn't seem to care that his shirt is drenched and his hair has fallen, sopping, into his eyes. Sora has always been the more carefree of the two of them, but Riku wonders, in the moment, when he started to equate being steadfast and responsible to being stiff and austere.

He purses his lips and leans down to pull his boots off, stuffing his socks into them and then burying his feet in the warm sand.

"So what's eating you, anyhow?" Axel asks, and Riku leans back on his hands, his eyes on his friends as Sora eagerly pounces in the shin-deep water, apparently trying to catch a fish with his bare hands.

"Nothing, really," Riku says, and Axel shifts to shove Riku's knees with one foot.

"Liar."

"What?" Riku quickly dusts the sand off his knee. "I'm _not_!"

"Riku, I've been training with you guys for _weeks_ now, and you _never_ hummingbirded like this," Axel says.

Riku makes a face. "Hummingbird isn't a verb," he says, and Axel laughs.

"Maybe it should be," he says, propping his ankle on his knee again. "Haven't you ever watched a hummingbird eat? They start, then stop, then start again, then stop, over and over, back and forth, all those herky-jerky movements, to this flower and then that flower and then back to the first one again, it's like they can't make up their minds at all."

"I guess I see your point," Riku admits with a sigh. "It's not that I can't make up my mind, though, not really."

"So what is it, then?"

Riku isn't sure if he's impressed or annoyed by Axel's persistence. He gives him a slightly weary look, then flops backward into the sand, too, staring up at the clouds meandering past high above them.

"Can I ask you something?" he says after a moment's pause.

"Oh, I see how it is," Axel says with mock vexation: "you get to ignore _my_ question, but I have to answer yours."

"It's _related_," Riku insists, turning his head to glower at him, one eye squinted against the brightness of the sun. "I'm bad at this, work with me, here."

"Okay, okay, ask your question, _maestro_."

"Do you think it's better to be _pretty_ good at a lot of different things," Riku posits, "or _really_ good at just one?"

"What's that about?" Axel asks, furrowing his brow.

"I just wanna know what you think," Riku says, turning his head to look up at the sky again.

Axel is quiet for a moment, then hums in thought. "Well... I mean, you know what they say about a jack of all trades."

Riku frowns. "I do?" He's heard the phrase before, in his travels to other worlds, but he isn't sure what Axel is trying to say, bringing it up. "I thought that just meant somebody who was good at everything."

"Oh, is that not a saying you guys use here?" Axel asks then, sitting up and dusting sand out of his hair.

"I've heard it in a couple of places," Riku says, shaking his head a little, "but I'd never heard it used here on the islands."

"Ah, then you probably don't know the whole thing," Axel says, and then clears his throat importantly, like he's about to impart the wisdom of the universe. "'Jack of all trades, but master of none'," he recites with exaggerated diction, wagging a finger in the air, and Riku sits up sharply.

"Wait, that's the whole saying?" he asks, blinking in surprise, and Axel frowns, seeming puzzled by how startled he is.

"Is it that strange?"

Riku opens his mouth as if to reply, but can't quite conjure words, so he closes it again, his eyes skirting away as he contemplates the idiom for a moment. He realizes that this is essentially the same thing his mother said to him long ago, and even the same as what Maleficent had said, but somehow, this context makes more sense to him. Maybe it's simply because of the word choice: _master_ of none? That won't do at all! He's a _Keyblade_ Master, now, and he has to live up to that legacy, after all. Is his varied knowledge of so many things hindering his progress as a master of the most important task he's ever been handed?

"N-no," he stammers, shaking his head, "not _strange_, I guess." He's not sure he knows how to articulate his feelings in this exact moment. "I guess... I just didn't know about that second part. I don't think I like that."

Axel squints at him, then leans back on his hands again, his shoulders sort of hunched up around his neck as he lets his spine sag a bit. "I think that's kinda the point, though," he says, glancing out at Sora and Kairi in the waves for a moment before looking at Riku again. "You're not _supposed_ to like it--the whole idea's that you gotta focus on what's important, and fine-tune the skills you're best at." He gives Riku a questioning look. "Right?" he asks. "It takes all types, doesn't it? Knowing how to do _everything_ doesn't mean you _can_ do everything; working together is what wins battles, no matter the sort. I don't care _how_ many skills you actually know, you can only do so many at once. An Army of One ain't gonna accomplish much, got it memorized?"

Riku rolls his eyes, but he's grinning a bit as Axel taps his fingertip against his temple before folding his legs up and resting his elbows on his knees.

"That's what I keep you lazybones around for, isn't it?" he teases, gesturing toward him and then toward Sora, laughing brightly when Axel picks up a fistful of sand and tosses it at him. "Hey, come on, it's true! You have at least one skill I know I can't master: I'll never be half the slacker you are!"

"Damn right," Axel says proudly, puffing his chest out. "I can out-nap _anybody_, and you can take that right to the bank."

"Or the ice cream shop," Riku snorts, and Axel arches one eyebrow. Riku's smile is utterly fiendish for just an instant. "That _is_ where you invest all your munny, isn't it?"

Axel grabs another fistful of sand to throw at him, but Riku has already jumped back to his feet to evade, leaving his boots in the sand and jogging down toward the water's edge. Sora has abandoned all illusions of dryness at this point and is on his hands and knees in the surf, still attempting to catch whatever hapless creature he has seemingly been dared to ensnare. A wave sloshes against him, shoving him sideways, and he glances up with a laugh when he sees Riku standing there.

"Come to help?" he asks, and Riku offers a hand to pull him to his feet. "Kairi says I can't catch a fish without a bottle anymore."

"So far she seems to be right," Riku says, and Sora sticks his tongue out at him.

"Boo, I'm just rusty," Sora insists, folding his arms over his chest and popping his hip the way he does when he wants people to believe he's pouting. "This is what happens when you gotta save the whole universe like five times, right?" he asks. "You gotta learn so much new stuff, you just forget your _roots_."

"Forget your roots, and you'll never have french fries again," Axel laments melodramatically, and Riku makes a baffled face at him, turning over his shoulder back toward the shore.

"What are you talking about?"

"Because..." Axel waves a hand in the air like maybe he could just retract what he'd said instead of trying to explain the joke. "Potatoes? Are a root? And if you forget... a potato--you know what, never mind, my humor is lost on you lunkheads."

Riku exchanges a puzzled look with Sora, who is hiding confused laughter behind one hand, and then he turns to watch patiently as Axel hesitates at the edge of the water. It's funny, he thinks, how the redhead often seems so out of place here on the islands, much of the time; he's wary of the ocean, though he clearly seems to have an affinity for it, and never seems quite sure what to make of the way the water doesn't stay still. Riku would like to learn more about where Axel grew up, one day, but for now it's both amusing and endearing to see how hard he tries to fit in. Even if his jokes are awful.

He glances at Sora sidelong then, his smile a little covert, a little tired somehow. This whole situation, it isn't just some passing inside joke between them, after all. Both of them--_all_ of them, really, Kairi and Axel included--have been through levels of hell they never knew existed before their worlds were turned upside-down, but Riku knows that not a one of them would go back and _not_ embark on this journey that has led them here. Certainly there are things he has to think they would all do differently, given the option for a do-over, but as he watches Axel take a moment to roll up the cuffs of his pants, mincing forward carefully to join them in the shin-deep water, Riku has to think that whatever path they might walk in the future, there's likely little chance they won't all wind up at the same destination, somehow. 

"Well, potatoes or otherwise, I don't think it's bad to broaden your skillset," he says to Sora then, reaching a hand out and summoning his Keyblade again, "so long as you make sure to focus on the stuff that really matters." He holds the blade out in front of him, the tip pointed toward the horizon, where the sun has begin its lazy descent toward the sea.

"Oh, catching fish with my bare hands doesn't matter, is that it?" Sora challenges, but takes the prompt to draw his Keyblade, lining it up beside Riku's.

"I mean, I guess if you can find a way to take down Xehanort with a fish..." Riku gives Sora a deceptively serious look, and Sora seems to give this idea legitimate consideration for just a moment.

"Riku's got it all figured out, then, huh?" Kairi giggles, summoning her own Keyblade and holding it out to gently touch the tip of the blade against Riku's.

"Don't tell him that," Axel chimes in, his Keyblade already shimmering into place, hooked over his shoulder as he gingerly makes his way up alongside Kairi, the rolled cuffs of his pants already soaked by the gentle waves. He levers the weapon from his shoulder and spins it around his hand with a flourish before joining their little posed scene, the spiky curve of his blade just barely brushing against the flower petals of Destiny's Embrace. "He'll get a big head, and there'll be no living with him after that."

"I guess fishing probably shouldn't really be a world-saving priority," Sora allows, staring down the length of his Keyblade before pulling it back and leaning it against his shoulder, "but I still _totally can_ catch a fish with my hands, okay."

"Melee, magic, _and_ fishing," Kairi says with a smile, gripping her Keyblade's hilt with one hand and resting the flowers against her other palm. "You're truly a man for all seasons, Sora."

"You mispronounced 'idiot savant'," Axel says in a stage whisper, one hand beside his face as he hooks his Keyblade over his shoulder again and leans toward Kairi. She splashes him with a noise of feigned offense on Sora's behalf.

"Or maybe a jack of all trades, is it?" Riku ventures, glancing at Axel, who lifts his eyebrows inquisitively.

"Is it?" Axel asks, a tug in his voice like it's caught on a string.

Riku stares toward the horizon a moment, his eyes moving down the silver spine of his Keyblade before he brings it close to him, touching his forehead against the cool metal of the back of the blade. He understands now, he thinks, what his mother meant, and even what Maleficent meant, when they chastised him for spreading himself too thin. He's _always_ spread himself too thin, and he knows this, but it had never occurred to him that trying to do so _much_ was not only a disservice to himself and his own goals, but it kept him from acknowledging the power his friends had, as well. All this time, all these years, Riku has tried so hard to keep his friends safe, to protect them at all costs, to be the army that stands between that which he holds dear and all that would seek to tear it from him, when in truth they have always had the power to stand _with_ him.

Maybe he'll never truly learn to narrow the beam. Maybe he'll always be pulled in by the draw of learning everything within his reach, dragged over the event horizon of the great singularity of knowledge and caught in the irresistible gravity of drinking in every bit of insight and every ounce of capability there is, but as he dismisses his Keyblade in a flicker of white and gold light, he can't help but smile.

"There's nothing saying there can't be more than one jack, right?" he says, hooking his thumbs into his belt and giving Sora a grin before turning his eyes to Kairi and then looking at Axel again, something challenging in his gaze. "How much do you think we can do with an Army of Seven?"

Axel shrugs, his Keyblade still hooked over his shoulder and a crooked sort of grin on his face.

"Against an Army of Thirteen? I'd say it depends," he says, and Riku tilts his head.

"On what?" he asks.

Axel gives him an infuriatingly knowing smile that is just shy of smug, Riku is briefly frustrated all over again. It isn't that he doesn't appreciate Axel's tendency to tilt at cryptic when he's making a point, but Riku has always fared better with blunt and straightforward. Maybe that's why he's always gotten along best with Sora. Kairi is just as dear to him, certainly, but she's long been the more subtle, perceptive type, and he has to figure this is why she's gravitated so strongly to Axel in the first place, now that they're all on the same team. He looks at Sora, who just shrugs as if the entire conversation has gone right over his head (it probably has), and then looks at Kairi.

She smiles, then makes an obviously deliberate motion of holding her Keyblade out in front of her to dismiss it, and as the sky turns red with the falling of the sun, Riku's eyes move back to the horizon as the answer settles across his consciousness like sand scattered by the tide.

No matter how many jacks, or how many skills, or how many people you have to fight for (or with), the thing that makes all the difference in the end isn't how _much_ you know, he realizes, his hands finding Kairi and Sora's without the help of his gaze.

"Our army is more than the sum of the skills we've learned, I'd say," he says, glancing at Axel, who looks a little proud that he's helped him come to this realization as he casually dismisses his Keyblade and rests one elbow atop Kairi's head, which she allows for the moment. Riku squeezes his friends' hands, and gives a firm nod.

He doesn't have to be an army unto himself, he thinks. He doesn't have to fight this fight alone, and the truth is he hasn't fought _alone_ in quite some time, he's just been too stubborn to admit it. An Army of Seven against an Army of Thirteen doesn't sound like the best odds, but maybe the point here has always been that quality matters much more than quantity.

So maybe he doesn't have to be a jack of all trades, so long as he can be a _Master_ of _One_.

**Author's Note:**

> yaaaay i can finally post this piece! i had a lot of fun writing this one; it was a bit of a challenge to myself to work in present tense more, and i think it turned out pretty nice! 
> 
> the two chidings Riku received are actually derived from the relevant cultural equivalents of the "jack of all trades" aphorism: Riku's mother's is a translation of the Japanese, '多芸は無芸', meaning many talents is no talent; Maleficent's is a translation of the German, '_Er kann alles, aber nichts davon richtig_', meaning someone who can do everything, but can't do anything properly.
> 
> also i know that the full idiom ends with "but better than a master of one", indicating that a varied skillset is often more useful than complete focus on a single ability, but the piece had a word limit of like 3.5k so i had to prioritize the point i wanted to get across. i hope the ending portrays the idiom in-full the way i intended, but brevity has never been my strong point >.>
> 
> comments strengthen our D-Link!!


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